Falsely accused of queue jumping

[HyacinthsHydrangeas]

A number of people in front of me to collect prescriptions today. Three year-old DS and I took our spot in the queue, which was not very orderly (the arrangement of the shop makes it difficult to form a clear single line if more than two people are waiting). Watched four or five people arrive after me.

When I was about to be next in line, a woman accused me of jumping the queue! She said "There's actually a long line here. I'm not sure where you came from, but we've been waiting a long time." I said "I'm not certain if I was before or after you, but I know I watched the person right behind you walk in!" She then made a HUGE show of being "gracious" enough to "let" me go first (this included asking everyone behind her in line if they minded if I went first).

I know it's unreasonable but I was SO mad!!! I recognize that it is mainly the fault of the shop for not creating a clear place to wait, but the fact that she came off looking like she was doing me a favor really grinds my gears.

Please tell me your stories of false accusation to help fuel my righteous indignation.

I think it seems unlikely she came off looking like she was doing you a favour. More likely she came across as a bit bonkers, if she was pointedly asking people like that.

I’m still aggrieved that, 30 years ago, our head of year/maths teacher accused me of writing a forged note to excuse my friend of being off school. I had no clue what he was in about.
My friend laughed when I told her, it was a different friend of hers & he had mixed us up!

There is a work one but I can’t share it in case bitch face recognises me/herself.

Prescription queues are the worst. Nowhere to form a line, and most people at least mildly stressed already. There's always some minor drama (I have a lot of prescriptions to collect). Don't give it another thought.

Years ago, a colleague was delayed coming home from holiday. Can't remember what happened but loads of flights were cancelled and it was in the news, he was one day late back to work. Someone printed out a list of earlier flights that he could have got and left it on the boss' desk.
Colleague then accused me of accusing him! His absence didn't affect me at all, and when your flight is one of many cancelled, then you are at the mercy of the airline anyway. He seemed to believe me but it still rankles.

@MeetMeAtOurSpot

I’m still aggrieved that, 30 years ago, our head of year/maths teacher accused me of writing a forged note to excuse my friend of being off school. I had no clue what he was in about. My friend laughed when I told her, it was a different friend of hers & he had mixed us up!

There is a work one but I can’t share it in case bitch face recognises me/herself.

I can see why you haven't let that one go!

I'll bet your work-related one grates on you. Having these things happen in the workplace is even worse since you can't just plan to never see these people again!

I remember being in a very long queue in Home Bargains or similar. I took my place at the back.
My mum who was about 87 at the time carried on walking, picking things up off the shelves to look at and worked her way right to the front. She then got right to the till and shouted for me to join her. I just couldn't do it !
To this day she denies it

I was accused of telling everyone something on a group holiday. And then ostracised for the rest of the trip for doing it. I wasn't even there at the time.

@Niconacotaco

Years ago, a colleague was delayed coming home from holiday. Can't remember what happened but loads of flights were cancelled and it was in the news, he was one day late back to work. Someone printed out a list of earlier flights that he could have got and left it on the boss' desk. Colleague then accused me of accusing him! His absence didn't affect me at all, and when your flight is one of many cancelled, then you are at the mercy of the airline anyway. He seemed to believe me but it still rankles.

I am stunned by the level of pettiness your colleague displayed by printing out a list of alternative flights...that is next level!

@DahliaMacNamara

Prescription queues are the worst. Nowhere to form a line, and most people at least mildly stressed already. There's always some minor drama (I have a lot of prescriptions to collect). Don't give it another thought.

Very true--prescription queues are uniquely horrible, even on their best days!

“No one made you a Prefect, so pipe down. I was here before you.”

Even if you can’t be sure that you were before her it’s always best to shut these types up by making it clear that you won’t be trifled with.

@BleuJay

“No one made you a Prefect, so pipe down. I was here before you.”

Even if you can’t be sure that you were before her it’s always best to shut these types up by making it clear that you won’t be trifled with.

HA I love this approach. Double down on their misplaced sense of authority.

Ahhh,the British and queueing,their favourite pastime

I was accused of queue jumping in the grocery shop at Center Parcs a couple of years ago. There was only one till open and I’d been standing there for over 15 mins whilst the couple of people in front of me did huge orders of groceries. They then opened another till on the other side of the shop. I hot-footed it over there and got there second, but then all of the subsequent people in the queue stood to one side rather than behind me. The first person being served finished and went, so I moved forward, and the person behind the counter said to me - very loudly - that I’d need to join the back of the (by then very long) queue. She pointed at it as well, just in case I couldn’t see it. When I told her that I’d already been waiting over 15 mins in the other queue, she shouted over to her colleague on the other side of the shop, pointing at me and demanding to know if I was telling the truth! She did then very sweetly give me a discount on my shopping, which was kind of her.

@CatkinToadflax

I was accused of queue jumping in the grocery shop at Center Parcs a couple of years ago. There was only one till open and I’d been standing there for over 15 mins whilst the couple of people in front of me did huge orders of groceries. They then opened another till on the other side of the shop. I hot-footed it over there and got there second, but then all of the subsequent people in the queue stood to one side rather than behind me. The first person being served finished and went, so I moved forward, and the person behind the counter said to me - very loudly - that I’d need to join the back of the (by then very long) queue. She pointed at it as well, just in case I couldn’t see it. When I told her that I’d already been waiting over 15 mins in the other queue, she shouted over to her colleague on the other side of the shop, pointing at me and demanding to know if I was telling the truth! She did then very sweetly give me a discount on my shopping, which was kind of her.

My blood is boiling for you. But happy to hear you got a discount!

One with a happy ending... I was in a long queue at the off-licence on a Friday night back in my student days (oh OK, a bit after that...) when a woman walked in and demanded I let her go first as she "had to be somewhere and the taxi was waiting." I was too shy to challenge her and let her go first (she'd worked her way up to the front of the queue as apparently we'd all left our backbones at home). The staff member at the till had obviously seen her ilk before, asked her for ID, which she didn't have, and sent her on her way!

I vividly remember one occasion when I was standing in the checkout queue at the supermarket, some ppl in front of and some behind me, everything calm.

Until I started to speak to my children in a language other than English, when the person behind me started accusing me of having jumped the queue. This was not long before the Brexit referendum when 'foreigners-taking-advantage' were flavour of the month for a certain kind of propagandist.

Ppl make accusations like that for all sorts of reasons. I'd be ticked off too in your shoes, but better to just shake it off.

I was blamed for my colleague not paying a supplier. On my day off
Felt so great to screenshot the email showing that I only asked for 1 invoice not to be paid whilst I was resolving a query. I think my email said… there must have been some miscommunication…

The apology was very weak 🤣

@SaborDeSoledad

One with a happy ending... I was in a long queue at the off-licence on a Friday night back in my student days (oh OK, a bit after that...) when a woman walked in and demanded I let her go first as she "had to be somewhere and the taxi was waiting." I was too shy to challenge her and let her go first (she'd worked her way up to the front of the queue as apparently we'd all left our backbones at home). The staff member at the till had obviously seen her ilk before, asked her for ID, which she didn't have, and sent her on her way!

Ahhh the sweet taste of justice!

@ThreeLocusts

I vividly remember one occasion when I was standing in the checkout queue at the supermarket, some ppl in front of and some behind me, everything calm.

Until I started to speak to my children in a language other than English, when the person behind me started accusing me of having jumped the queue. This was not long before the Brexit referendum when 'foreigners-taking-advantage' were flavour of the month for a certain kind of propagandist.

Ppl make accusations like that for all sorts of reasons. I'd be ticked off too in your shoes, but better to just shake it off.

Wowww that is really shocking. I'm sorry that happened to you!

I was in a training course for work. It was me and a group of guys who all worked together. ( they were quite “laddish” and enjoyed a joke but nice). We were taught by a trainer who I liked but had a way about him which was not at all laddish. The trainer called me aside one day and showed me a cartoon of him which had a “funny” comment underneath which he had found in the classroom. He accused me of drawing it… he had been comparing handwriting apparently. I’m sure he was offended but I was seriously bloody outraged that of all the students he would think it was me. Of course the rest of the group thought it was hilarious that I’d been accused.

Oh mine is a queue one too! Waited in line at the post office to ask which envelope I needed to buy to ship goods to Australia. Was given my answer and paid for a big parcel envelope. Once paid I left the queue to go fill in my newly purchased envelope and waited in the queue once more to ship my goods. Once I got to the front they informed me they were sorry, they'd told me the wrong info and I needed a different envelope. She was apologetic and said once I'd filled in my new envelope to just wait there (pointing to the side of where the queue was) and she'd see to me next. So that's what I did. But of course some grumpy old hag took offence at me "skipping the queue" and proceeded to shout at me very loudly about how rude I was, how I was breaking Covid rules, how the youth of today (I'm 36) had no manners. When I calmly tried to explain I'd already waited in the queue...twice...and was asked to wait there by staff, she called me a liar.
At the time I was trying to look after a toddler while working full time during lockdown so my nerves were a bit fried. I basically said "would it do you any harm to just be nice!?" with tears in my eyes like an idiot. To this day I still think of all the witty things I should have said to her 😂 think I need to let it go...

@BleuJay

“No one made you a Prefect, so pipe down. I was here before you.”

Even if you can’t be sure that you were before her it’s always best to shut these types up by making it clear that you won’t be trifled with.

Love this, will try to remember it for such occasions

I basically said "would it do you any harm to just be nice

that was quite a good response too!

Years ago my boss called me in and told me off for taking too much sick leave. I had just been off for 2 days with a heavy cold. When I glanced across the desk he had my colleagues file in front of him and I knew she had had a lot of sick leave. I pointed put that it wasn’t my file he was looking at and he blustered a bit but didn’t apologise. I was very young and it was in the 1980’s when what the boss, usually male, said goes.
Still grated on me 35 yrs later!

@coles85

Oh mine is a queue one too! Waited in line at the post office to ask which envelope I needed to buy to ship goods to Australia. Was given my answer and paid for a big parcel envelope. Once paid I left the queue to go fill in my newly purchased envelope and waited in the queue once more to ship my goods. Once I got to the front they informed me they were sorry, they'd told me the wrong info and I needed a different envelope. She was apologetic and said once I'd filled in my new envelope to just wait there (pointing to the side of where the queue was) and she'd see to me next. So that's what I did. But of course some grumpy old hag took offence at me "skipping the queue" and proceeded to shout at me very loudly about how rude I was, how I was breaking Covid rules, how the youth of today (I'm 36) had no manners. When I calmly tried to explain I'd already waited in the queue...twice...and was asked to wait there by staff, she called me a liar. At the time I was trying to look after a toddler while working full time during lockdown so my nerves were a bit fried. I basically said "would it do you any harm to just be nice!?" with tears in my eyes like an idiot. To this day I still think of all the witty things I should have said to her 😂 think I need to let it go...

Not the youth of today But I think your response was very good!